Oh, the potholes

[Goal15]

Just got back from a trip to Nashville from Dallas. Suffice it to say I have found a new reason (as if I needed one,) to hate I-40 through Arkansas and Western Tennesee. Recent winter weather has left the surface pocked with teeth-jarring potholes. The surface between Little Rock and Memphis is nearly an obstacle course. They are patching them with hot mix but that isn't staying in many places. Other places the craters are as deep as 3 inches and can take up the whole lane. Passing lanes are somewhat better but traffic stacks up behind you even if you are towing at 65.

Will be going through and tightening every cabinet door and screw that I can find this coming weekend. Will also take the Tundra in for front end alignment check.

Hopefully these will get fixed but given the usual condition of this east-west truck conduit, I thought I would put a heads up out there for anyone who is contemplating using this route.

Dana

[KJRitchie]

Sounds like a "shovel ready job".

How were the contents in you Airstream after your trip?

I can just only imagine the roads in New England after all the snow they've had.

Kelvin

[tevake]

Yet another good reason to travel on the secondary and state roads.
It getting for me less and less enjoyable to be out there dicing it up with all the fast trafic and trucks on the interstates. Plus the experiences to be had in the little out of the way towns is completely different and in a good way to those at interstate stops. It makes for slower going for sure, but I find traveling that way a pleasure in its self.

Cheers Richard

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by tevake

Yet another good reason to travel on the secondary and state roads.
It getting for me less and less enjoyable to be out there dicing it up with all the fast trafic and trucks on the interstates. Plus the experiences to be had in the little out of the way towns is completely different and in a good way to those at interstate stops. It makes for slower going for sure, but I find traveling that way a pleasure in its self.

Of course, US highways and State highways may have the same lack-of-maintenance problems as the Interstate highway system, if not more so, because there's never enough repair money to go around and the heavily-trafficked roads get the lion's share of the money. But if you have to put up with potholes anyway, then doing it on a less-traveled yet more scenic road is usually better.

[Goal15]

Originally Posted by KJRitchie

Sounds like a "shovel ready job".

How were the contents in you Airstream after your trip?

I can just only imagine the roads in New England after all the snow they've had.

Kelvin

Kelvin

surprisingly, other than pillows dislodged from the L-shaped sofa and a couple of the plastic lense covers off the ceiling lights, most of the contents were in pretty good shape. Opening the overhead storage can be an adventure, but that goes for multi-million dollar airplanes as well, so I can't fault my little 23 foot Airstream too much for that. No broken eggs in the refrigerator... so I must have done a half decent job of pothole avoidance.

Dana

[Goal15]

Originally Posted by tevake

Yet another good reason to travel on the secondary and state roads.
It getting for me less and less enjoyable to be out there dicing it up with all the fast trafic and trucks on the interstates. Plus the experiences to be had in the little out of the way towns is completely different and in a good way to those at interstate stops. It makes for slower going for sure, but I find traveling that way a pleasure in its self.

Cheers Richard

Ordinarily I would be in total agreement on the roads less traveled, but with finite vacation time and wanting to spend as much time at destination visiting our son as possible, Interstates are a necessary evil. I haven't calculated the time savings over using the other highways, but as it is two days of 6 hours of towing back to back (each way) within a 9 day period are about all I want, so even it if was possible to use other roads at the cost of an additional hour or so (probably two) I'm not sure its a price I would want to pay to avoid the trucks and potholes.

Dana

[mrfrank9]

That's what we were thinking when we drove through Indy and back instead of around it.

Ended up with all new tires for our TV. Yay!

mrgrank9

[mefly2]

Originally Posted by Goal15

Just got back from a trip to Nashville from Dallas. Suffice it to say I have found a new reason (as if I needed one,) to hate I-40 through Arkansas and Western Tennesee. Recent winter weather has left the surface pocked with teeth-jarring potholes. The surface between Little Rock and Memphis is nearly an obstacle course. They are patching them with hot mix but that isn't staying in many places. Other places the craters are as deep as 3 inches and can take up the whole lane. Passing lanes are somewhat better but traffic stacks up behind you even if you are towing at 65.

Will be going through and tightening every cabinet door and screw that I can find this coming weekend. Will also take the Tundra in for front end alignment check.

Hopefully these will get fixed but given the usual condition of this east-west truck conduit, I thought I would put a heads up out there for anyone who is contemplating using this route.

Dana

Welcome to the four seasons ... plus one more ...road repair season. Now you understand the meaning of the phrase "spring break up"!